In the art of trailing mobile vacuum systems adapted for collecting the cut grass, leaves and other debris discharged from a rotary mower mounted on a riding tractor, commonly an adaptor boot is constructed for attaching to the discharge portion of the mower deck. The boot is connected by a flexible hose to the inlet of a vacuum-blower unit which has an outlet connected by another flexible hose to a trailing wheel supported cart. The cart usually has a rectangular bed or body which is enclosed by a cover having an air discharge opening covered by a screen. The cart also has a pair of wheels and a tow bar which supports the vacuum-blower unit and includes a hitch for coupling the cart to the riding tractor. The cut grass, leaves and other debris discharged from the outlet of the mower deck are drawn through the boot to the blower and are blown into the covered cart.
As a result of the many different manufacturers of rotary mowers for mounting on riding tractors, the mower decks and discharge outlets have many different sizes and configurations. As a result, the boots have been custom manufactured in many different configurations in order to have a specific boot for a specific mower deck. In addition, some of the rotary mower decks discharge to the right of the riding tractor and other decks discharge to the left of the tractor, thus also requiring the manufacturing and distributing of boots for right and left discharge decks. It has also been common practice to mount or attach each boot directly on the discharge portion of the mower deck with the boot closely surrounding the deck and with the boot inlet conforming to the outlet of the mower deck so that the boot becomes, in effect, an extension of the deck and is carried by the deck.
The manufacturers and distributors of trailing vacuum systems for riding tractor mowers have found it necessary to produce and carry a large inventory of many different boots each having a different configuration corresponding to a deck configuration of a particular rotary mower. This inventory of the many different boots significantly increases the cost of producing and distributing trailing vacuum systems and requires matching different boots to different rotary mowers. It has also been found that many of the boots which attach to the decks of riding lawn mowers present a clogging problem within the boot, especially when the cut grass, leaves or other debris are wet. When the boot clogs, it is necessary for the operator of the tractor to stop the tractor, dismount and manually remove the boot and/or debris from the boot.
As mentioned above, the cut grass, leaves and other debris drawn through the boot by the vacuum-blower unit, are blown into the cart where the debris collects until the cart is full. It is difficult for the operator of the riding tractor to determine when the trailing cart is filled with debris. If you fail to detect when the cart is full, the debris may fill up and clog the flexible hoses connected to the blower and/or fill up and clog the boot and the blower housing. To avoid this problem and the substantial time required for removing the debris clogging the hoses, boot and housing, the tractor operator must frequently stop the tractor and vacuum-blower unit, and walk back to the trailing cart to inspect the amount of debris collected within the cart.
It is common for the trailing carts to have a dump-type bed or body to facilitate removing the debris collected and compacted within the cart. Usually, the cart is emptied by towing the cart to a location where the debris may be collected in a pile. The rear door of the cart is removed, and the body is tilted so that the debris may be pulled from the cart usually with the aid of a rake. The removal of the debris from the cart normally requires a significant amount of time, especially if the debris is wet and compacted within the cart.